diff --git a/guardrails/utils/templating_utils.py b/guardrails/utils/templating_utils.py
index 2284c6f00..69a417274 100644
--- a/guardrails/utils/templating_utils.py
+++ b/guardrails/utils/templating_utils.py
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-import collections
 from string import Template
 from typing import List
 
@@ -7,6 +6,12 @@ def get_template_variables(template: str) -> List[str]:
     if hasattr(Template, "get_identifiers"):
         return Template(template).get_identifiers()  # type: ignore
     else:
-        d = collections.defaultdict(str)
-        Template(template).safe_substitute(d)
-        return list(d.keys())
+        pattern = Template.pattern
+        variables = []
+        seen = set()
+        for m in pattern.finditer(template):
+            named = m.group("named") or m.group("braced")
+            if named is not None and named not in seen:
+                variables.append(named)
+                seen.add(named)
+        return variables